- Title: LEBANON: BRITISH BAD BOYS PRODIGY PERFORM IN BEIRUT'S MARTYRS' SQUARE
- Date: 8th May 1998
- Summary: WIDE OF STAGE PRODIGY PERFORMING "SMACK MY BITCH UP" FANS DANCING IN AUDIENCE PRODIGY PERFORMING "VOODOO PEOPLE" FANS CHEERING
- Embargoed: 23rd May 1998 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Reuters ID: LVA2712NNM04K9XDZ69VNM67H4K4
- Story Text: Once more familiar with the sounds of warfare than rock music, the streets of Beirut rocked to another sound at the weekend.
British bad boy band the Prodigy performed their brand of hardcore dance music in Beirut's Martyrs' Square on Saturday (May 8).
The square was once the frontline between warring Lebanese factions.
The performance was one of the first major concerts in the capital since the end of civil war in Lebanon in 1990.
The band -- Leeroy Thornhill, Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Keith "Maxim" Palmer -- arrived in Beirut on Friday (May 8), a day before their scheduled concert.
The controversial musicians, whose single "Smack My Bitch Up" and the accompanying video were banned on radio last year, played the one-off gig on a specially built stage before about 5000 fans.
The Prodigy came together in the early 1990's in a club in Essex, England, called The Barn.
Howlett used to go there after the appeal of London's hip hop scene wore off.
Locals Flint and Thornhill were regulars.The band started to come together after Flint asked Howlett to make him a tape of his favourite dance tunes.Howlett filled a tape with hardcore tracks made from his rudimentary home studio.
He called himself The Prodigy.Flint and Thornhill were smitten.Palmer joined them and the band embarked on playing every rave that would have them.
The band's line-up has remained the same since the early days -- with the exception of a female dancer who appeared with them on their early dates.
So far, the Prodigy have released three albums.
Their first, "Experience" in 1992 was a rave-influenced album that earned a small, loyal following.
It was 1994's "Music for the Jilted Generation" that homegrown British audiences latched onto.
The album marked the band's resahping into a harder, darker outfit, moving away from the familiar sounds of techno pioneers Kraftwerk and into more "hardcore street music".
That album produced the hit "Firestater".The song made Keith Flint a household name.
But it was 1997's award-winning "The Fat of the Land" album that established the band's reputation outside the UK.
The album, already at the top of the charts at home, entered the American Billboard Charts at Number 1.
The band's ride to the top was well under way. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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